Hutong, a Testing Ground for Modernisation

Beatrice Leanza

The historic fabric of Beijing, which was heavily disfigured up until the 2008 Olympics and then was the subject of radical redevelopment, is now at a turning point. In a process that has featured some successful experiments but has also been hampered by regulatory constraints, questions are now being asked about the best urban regeneration strategy to adopt, as one of those directly involved explained

It is virtually impossible to address issues of urban regeneration about Beijing’s historic hutong areas without raising deep-seated sentiments ranging from outrage to sheer nihilism. Hutongs are a crucible of China’s unfinished modern project and a testbed of political and social agency relentlessly negotiated through decades of nebulous policy making and informal planning.

From the vantage point of a long-time Beijing resident, and as someone that plays a part in relevant professional practice and debate, I have learnt one lesson: initiatives aimed at savaging the physical and cultural heritage of hutongs can exist only as a constant balancing act – somewhere between the identification of localized problems and their cyclical redressing with linked top-down and bottom-up strategies. There is no simple solution to their survival; hutongs are living ecosystems whose social and urban configuration varies deeply from district to district, with their outlook shaped by regeneration policies that have changed every other decade. More drastically with the market reforms of the 1990s, participation with urban renewal opened to parties other than government agencies and resident committees or danweis (working units that managed relations with residents). This liberalization introduced deregulated forms of ownership and complex protocols of relocation and compensation, which to date remain the most contentious issues, and obstacles, to a normalization course to take effect. Current governmental strategies, as I shall explain shortly, seem to target this aspect – for now, though, they have just forced the uplifting experiments of recent years into “suspended judgement”.

Interesting examples of engagement with participation found fertile ground in Dashilar, the zone southeast of Tian’anmen square, which is now celebrated as a key case of planning practice spearheaded since 2011 by Guan’an Holding, a government-backed development agency. Dashilar’s model of “nodal development” stood as a counter point to the tabula-rasa approach that in pre-Olympic times severely mutilated the historic fabric of the city. The strategy aimed at reconnecting its social context and cultural heritage with contemporary creative and commercial entrepreneurship linked to social ethos, which started with a series of design projects to inspire more organic redevelopment. Important examples here range from the territorial rebranding designed by Kenya Hara, to the award-winning Micro Yuan’er (Aga Khan Award 2016) and Micro Hutong both by ZAO/standardarchitecture.

People’s Architecture Office, Mr Zhao Plug-In House, Beijing.

The participation of a wider pool of design professionals was further incentivized via the Dashilar Pilot program which started in 2013 with the collaboration of Beijing Design Week. Its annual open calls target the implementation of integrated solutions meant to tackle both infrastructural upgrade as well as communal needs. One of its most successful outcomes are the Plug-In Houses by People’s Architecture Office (PAO). These are cost-effective and energy-efficient prefab solutions for interior renovations which would be otherwise unaffordable for most of the low-income residents of the area. This is a flexible system that can be fully customized and assembled on site, and has been employed in a dozen cases of different scale, which are co-funded by the developer and the residents (see: Mr Zhao Plug In House, 2016). Nonetheless, negotiations relevant to ownership rights also play an inhibiting factor. ReMIX studio, which is based in the area and whose office renovation is a fine example of spatial reuse, has seen two renovation plans fail (see: Orchid Hotel, 2013) in spite of lengthy consultations with neighbouring locals.

Remix, New Orchid Hotel, Beijing.

Dashilar’s model is one that cannot be fully replicated, in the opinion of the architect and planner Xu Yijing. Dashilar has been home to a mixed ecology of commerce, culture and entertainment for centuries, and its residents are tied to an historically rooted sense of belonging that made community-building plans possible. Despite some problems, Dashilar still represents a success story in terms of its attempts at creating avenues of productive exchange among users and planners. Other areas that had recently considered inclusive forms of revitalization, are seeing strategies curbed by a rise in regulations. Since early 2017 national directives have tightened control over spatial planning, and this has had the effect the restoring of formal unity to the façades and floorplans of traditional courtyard houses in Beijing. Heavy-handed building codes have transformed entire streets and neighbourhoods, with windows and doors bricked up and entranceways restored off the public lanes inside tortuous alleys (see: Window Shopping by LAVA Beijing, 2017).

LAVA Beijing, Window Shopping, Beijing.

With added-on structures, random-type extensions, demolished storefronts and the subletting of individual units been deemed unlawful – all of this means that the informal spatiality intrinsic to grassroots hutong life is thinning out. This so-called “big clean-up” is part of larger manoeuvres aiming at fighting illegality, from restoring transparency to construction practices to correcting business licencing, and alleviating densely populated areas, like hutongs, by zeroing onto illegal migrants, most of which are the ‘low-end’ business owners that have animated street life for decades.

In the area of Baitasi, east of the city’s financial district, experimental attempts of revitalization began a couple of years ago. Initial try-outs funded by the local developer launched projects tackling new habitation solutions for millennials to repopulate this mostly residential area. Trace Architecture Office’s Split House (2015) and Vector Architects’ Hybrid Courtyard (2017) are sophisticated examples of adaptive reuse for co-living and co-working models – yet without a synergic area planning whose ongoing exploration has been further limited by new norms, these interventions remain of little productive use.

Vector Architects, Hybrid Courtyard, Baitasi (Beijing).

In 2016 a competition for courtyard renovation was launched with the collaboration of World Architecture magazine. Although a commendable attempt at widening participation, the three winning projects, one of which The Artist’s Atelier by B.L.U.E. Architecture studio, are still awaiting completion expected sometime in 2018.

B.L.U.E. Architecture, The Artist’s Atelier, Baitasi (Beijing).

Lack of transparency in redevelopment practices is also a major concern. Evidence has surfaced in recent research by international master class students from Tsinghua University supervised by Zhang Yue, a scholar heavily involved in the masterplan of Baitasi. While studying scenarios for alliances in the area, the lack of awareness and social cohesiveness amongst residents have emerged as crucial factors in terms of developing plans. The aim is for now to engineer new spaces of sociality that can more smoothly prompt their involvement in decision making.

In the wake of Beijing Design Week 2018, other areas are attempting to start off alternative action. In Tianqiao, an impoverished zone in Xuanwu south of Dashilar, Wu Wenyi, an architect and former partner of studio Urbanus, is coordinating efforts for possible long-term application. Plans, like others mentioned above, seek to revitalize the traces of this historic entertainment area, once enlivened by street performers, acrobats and the likes, with newly implanted communal spaces – a common kitchen, a bathhouse, a maker space among others. Tianqiao is home to one of the city’s largest performance arts centres, and this plan aims at using the theatre as a catalyst to attract younger professionals in relevant fields while engaging locals in a co-actualized form of revival.

So, what will happen next? In practical terms, there is no way of knowing, but if we are to believe in history, the current rules might well inspire new forms of bottom-up action. Jia Rong head of Dashilar Platform, believes that current restrictions shall serve as a reminder to professionals that it is their responsibility to actively partake in challenges around thinking and building a common urban future. The characteristic forms of Chinese sociality that are consumed and reproduced in streets and alleys can also be found in other pockets of grassroots life, and in communal playgrounds that are still in formation and might need creative contribution. Urban creation is a game of timeliness with a moving social target at its heart, and it needs to be tackled through constant repositioning, with a focus on both centres and peripheries.

In 2015 and 2016 Beatrice Leanza was the chief curator of Batiasi Remade, the program of research and action focused on studying planning approaches for the areas’ revitalization. It was part of Beijing Design Week in both years when she was acting as its creative director. Details can be found on www.btsremade.org

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18 February 2018

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